Malacañang on Monday expressed confidence that “power-hungry” destabilizers would not succeed in overthrowing President Rodrigo Duterte, who enjoys the public’s “overwhelming support.”
“We are confident that we enjoy overwhelming support from the people and therefore what these groups would want to see — the ouster of President Duterte — would not happen,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
Roque made the remarks as the military confirmed the existence of “Red October,” a purported plot to remove the President from office next month.
Military disclosure
The military disclosed the plot to unseat the President as it pushed for the creation of a national task force to end the communist insurgency.
At a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo on Monday, Col. Edgard Arevalo, spokesperson for the military, said part of the plan was the infiltration by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), of groups opposing the President.
But exiled CPP founding chair Jose Maria Sison said on Monday the military’s proposal for a national interagency task force would only be a waste of taxpayer money and would not help quell the rising ranks of NPA rebels.
LP role ‘not remote’
“The military will be wasting its personnel by trying to command civilian agencies and will be sucking up the tax revenues of the government by trying to increase personnel and so-called military-civilian operations,” Sison said in an online interview from his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
In a press conference in Camp Crame on Monday, the chief of the Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde, said the allegation that the opposition Liberal Party was involved in the plot to oust the President was “not remote.”
For his part, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Monday said genuine peace would not be immediately achieved simply by entering into an agreement with the CPP, which has been waging war with the government for half a century.
Speaking at the Rotary Peace Awards, Bello, who is also the government’s peace panel chair, stressed that peace can be truly achieved only “when the root causes of the armed conflict are eradicated.” —Julie M. Aurelio, Jeannette I. Andrade, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Jaymee T. Gamil and Jovic Yee